1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a frame construction for holding a thin plate of material which is cut into a plurality of smaller plates by a manually manipulated cutting tool. More particularly, the invention relates to a frame for holding a thin plate between a base and template in which the template is formed with a plurality of grooves for guiding the cutting tool during a cutting operation, and in which the template is removably mounted on the base for cutting the plate in both horizontal and vertical directions to form the smaller plates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When performing analysis of various organic compounds in a process referred to as Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC), a sample of a mixture to be analyzed is placed on thin glass plate. The mixture sample separates on the plate for subsequent analysis of the organic compounds which form the mixture. The plates which are used in TLC are generally rectangularly shaped and are available in numerous sizes. Both the lengths and widths of these plates vary throughout a wide range to provide the various size plates required by laboratories in performing the separation and analysis procedures. The particular size plate which is used depends upon the particular material being separated. This requires the analysis laboratories to stock a considerable number of such plates of various sizes, which presents inventory and stocking problems.
These presized plates are relatively expensive with respect to the price of a large size plate of the required sheet material. Therefore, it is extremely advantageous for the laboratories or other users of the TLC plates to obtain relatively large sheets or plates of the material and cut the plates themselves into the smaller sized plates as required for a particular analysis or when the inventory of a particular size plate drops below a predetermined amount.
No known frame or cutting device of which we are aware enables these TLC plates or other types of glass, plastic or similar material plates, to be easily and conveniently cut into smaller sizes. Therefore, the need has existed for a plate cutting frame which securely holds a main plate, enabling the plate to be cut into a number of different size smaller plates particularly for use in TLC analysis by a simple and inexpensive manually operated cutting tool.